QUEBEC — Former Quebec deputy premier Nathalie Normandeau filed a $722,500 lawsuit on Monday against a media outlet for what she claimed is unfair dismissal, according to court documents.

The ex-Liberal member of the legislature was suspended by Cogeco Media without pay in March when she was arrested on various fraud-related charges connected to alleged incidents during her time in office. She was fired in early April.

Normandeau’s contract was ended due to the fact “these events have caused you to lose the legitimacy, image and credibility that are necessary to host a radio show and for which we entered into a contract with you,” according to the dismissal letter cited in the court papers.

She claims in her lawsuit she was let go based on accusations and that she should have benefited from the presumption of innocence.

Normandeau, 48, is seeking $572,500 in lost wages because she had a contract until August 2019 and $150,000 in various damages.

“This public condemnation has effectively made the plaintiff (Normandeau) unemployable in the labour market,” her lawsuit reads.

Normandeau was one of seven people arrested in mid-March in a scheme in which political financing and gifts were allegedly exchanged for lucrative government contracts between 2000 and 2012.

She served as a Liberal member of the legislature from 1998 to 2011 and held key cabinet positions including municipal affairs, natural resources and Canadian intergovernmental affairs as well as being deputy premier from 2007 to 2011.

Former Quebec deputy premier Nathalie Normandeau and six other people involved in politics and government contracts have been arrested on 13 charges that include fraud on government, corruption and abuse of trust, the head of Quebec’s permanent anti-corruption squad has confirmed.

The group of seven, which includes people associated with the provincial Liberals and the Parti Québécois, were arrested shortly after 6 a.m. on Thursday in Quebec City, Charlevoix and the Gaspésie, UPAC chief Robert Lafrenière said.

The arrests are the result of two long investigations, dubbed Joug and Lierre, he said.

Charbonneau Commission/ The Canadian PressMarc-Yvan Cote, former Quebec transport minister, seen in a frame grab from the video feed at the Charbonneau inquiry, is said to be among those arrested Thursday.

Normandeau faces charges of conspiracy, corruption of public servants, frauds against the government and abuse of trust.

The conspiracy charge relates to actions between Jan. 1, 2000 and Dec. 31, 2012. The other charges relate to actions between Jan. 1, 2005 and Dec. 31, 2012.

Others arrested are: former Liberal cabinet minister Marc-Yvan Côté, Normandeau’s former chief of staff, Bruno Lortie, Roche engineering employees Mario Martel and France Michaud, as well as Ernest Murray, a former political attaché to former Premier Pauline Marois and François Roussy, former mayor of the town of Gaspé.

The accused are to appear in court on April 20.

Paul Chiasson / Canadian PressFormer Quebec Liberal cabinet minister Nathalie Normandeau is pictured off a television monitor at the Charbonneau inquiry looking into corruption in the Quebec construction industry Wednesday, June 18, 2014

The province’s anti-corruption squad said those arrested — at different times and in different ways — circumvented laws in order to obtain advantages such as gifts or political financing, or government subsidies and public contracts.

Reacting to the news of the arrests Thursday morning, Françoise David, the leader of opposition Québec Solidaire said this was a good day.

“We’re happy today to see that the work done by UPAC, the Charbonneau Commission and even our member Amir Khadir is finally bearing fruit,” David said. “Now, (Quebec Premier Philippe) Couillard has to assure that all the money the Liberal party got illicitly be reimbursed. That will be proof that the party has truly turned the page on this chapter.”

She added that Couillard, Treasury Board chair Sam Hamad, and several other members of the current government were part of the cabinet with Normandeau and should have known there were problems.

Charbonneau CommissionBruno Lortie, former cabinet chief for Nathalie Normandeau, testifies at the Charbonneau Commission Tuesday June 17, 2014 in Montreal.

“Either they were astonishingly blind, or they knew, but they closed their eyes,” David said.

She added that Couillard must now assure all the recommendations of the Charbonneau Commission are followed, and give stronger teeth to whistleblower laws that allow public servants to signal wrongdoing.

Couillard reacted in Quebec city by saying: “Fortunately, we are in a totally different context from those days with the new rules for party financing.”

“We no longer have to worry about these kind of questions,” Couillard added.

A secretary for former Premier Jean Charest — who named Normandeau to her position — said Charest would not comment about the allegations.

UPAC had been investigating political financing of both the Liberal Party and the Parti Québécois. Earlier this week, UPAC laid 67 tax fraud charges against Roche Groupe and Pluritec, another engineering firm. Côté was also a vice-president at the Roche engineering firm.

Charbonneau CommissionFrance Michaud, who until last year was employed by Roche, confirmed that she liaised with Violette Trépanier of the Quebec Liberal Party and Ginette Boivin from the Parti Québécois to discuss party financing in the 2000s.

In June 2014 Normandeau appeared before the Charbonneau Commission into corruption. Her name had come up in previous testimony at the commission.

Among other things, the former Liberal MNA for Bonaventure is alleged to have used her ministerial powers to increase provincial subsidies on certain construction projects. Witnesses at the Charbonneau Commission also suggested she benefitted from illegal fundraising activities.

Normandeau, 47, was a radio host in Quebec City, but the station announced Thursday that she has been suspended without pay.

Police alleged Côté and Lortie committed fraud, conspiracy, influence peddling and infractions to the electoral law, according to applications for search warrants unsealed in 2014. The documents allege Côté was able to wield significant influence within the office of Normandeau, when she was minister of municipal affairs. He and Lortie, Normandeau’s chief of staff, were close friends and considered themselves to be like family.

Police uncovered several emails in 2011 showing a system of false invoicing and illegal financing engaged by Roche, and that the company received privileged information, and was able to rig the tender process to its advantage.

In March 2008, a person, whose identity was redacted in the document, sent an email to Roche project manager Yves Gaillardetz, and Îles-de-la-Madeleine city councillor Jonathan Lapierre, saying that the call for tenders for a water filtration project would be put on hold until after the three of them could meet for Roche to get privileged information about the project.

Former Quebec deputy premier Nathalie Normandeau is using her long-awaited appearance at the province’s corruption inquiry to defend the decisions she took while serving as a cabinet minister.

The ex-provincial politician told the Charbonneau Commission on Wednesday she exercised her discretionary powers as a cabinet minister with care and insisted she didn’t put undue pressure on civil servants.

Normandeau’s name has been mentioned frequently during testimony at the Charbonneau Commission and she’s been accused of benefiting from illegal financing practices, accepting gifts from entrepreneurs and favouring funding for projects involving firms that donated heavily to the Quebec Liberal party.

Normandeau has denied any wrongdoing and repeated that again on Wednesday.

I don’t call that pressure. I call that doing my job as minister

She defended intervening in certain files, saying that discretionary powers are an important tool for a cabinet minister.

As municipal affairs minister, she was charged with overseeing which municipalities got subsidies for projects. The towns themselves awarded the contracts.

Normandeau said that discretionary power exists to counterbalance the power of civil servants.

She estimated she increased the subsidies on 32 of 708 files that crossed her desk because she didn’t believe the funding was adequate. And sending files back to department officials was not a form of pressure, she added.

“That’s 4.5 per cent of files where I used my discretionary power,” Normandeau said. “I don’t call that pressure. I call that doing my job as minister.”

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul ChiassonFormer Quebec Liberal cabinet minister Nathalie Normandeau is pictured off a television monitor at the Charbonneau inquiry looking into corruption in the Quebec construction industry Wednesday, June 18, 2014 in Montreal.

Normandeau was also asked about Bruno Lortie, her former chief of staff, who was on the stand Tuesday. She initially defended the senior member of her staff, calling him a diligent person who she had no reason to doubt during the eight years they worked together.

Lortie had close ties with Roche engineering executive Marc-Yvan Cote, a former Liberal member of the legislature himself. Lortie described him as being like family with Cote and he’d often push for files involving Roche as a result.

Other witnesses testified that Lortie would often interfere in the handing out of subsidies and was closely involved. On the stand, Lortie had trouble remembering many of the details.

Initially, Normandeau repeated that she trusted Lortie, who served with her for her entire time in cabinet. But later, she agreed the allegations against Lortie were troubling.

Normandeau said she would have fired Lortie “on the spot” if she’d had any inkling he was doing anything wrong, but cautioned the allegations against Lortie remain unproven.

“I hope he didn’t betray my trust,” Normandeau added.

The former Liberal cabinet minister is the highest-ranking politician to take the stand at the probe. She spent five years in opposition before becoming Tourism Minister in 2003 under then-premier Jean Charest’s Liberal government.

She became municipal affairs minister in 2005 and quit politics suddenly in 2011.

Normandeau said Wednesday that it was Charest himself that plucked her from her mayor’s chair in her hometown of Maria, in the Gaspe region.

If Lortie gave inside information to Roche, it’s reprehensible and inexcusable

Normandeau has been on the defensive over the past several months amid swirling allegations.

Her name has also surfaced at the inquiry in 2012 following allegations that she received gifts like Celine Dion concert tickets and roses from controversial construction boss Lino Zambito.

This year, anti-corruption police officials have alleged in warrant documents that she intervened in favour of the Roche engineering firm against the advice of civil servants.

However, no charges have been laid and the allegations have not been tested in court.

Normandeau has insisted she was not influenced by the gifts and was not involved in illegal fundraising. She said she took care to keep an arm’s length between her ministerial role and her role in the party itself.

“I always erected a wall between my office and my role as a party member, and believe me, I was not naive enough to believe that some people who were there [at the fundraisers] did not think, perhaps, they’d get something in return for their involvement in the Quebec Liberal Party,” said Normandeau.

“But those people were wrong because there was never any return.”

In her testimony, she pinned the blame on engineering firms and said she was revolted by what she’s heard at the inquiry about false invoicing, strawmen schemes to circumvent fundraising rules and influencing civil servants with gifts and perks.

She adds her hope is that UPAC, the province’s anti-corruption police unit, gets to the bottom of it.